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How does everybody feel about prologues?
Love them? Necessary evil for some stories? Or should we just relabel them as ‘Chapter 1’ and not prologue?
@Michaelvaliant I like them. But they need to have a payoff in the story later. I guess my favorite prologue is the one from Game of Thrones. Eerie and frightening. And most of the plot used to hinge around that menacing threat in the background.
My novels have prologues, and I do that, use them to set up a lot of things for later. Including theme and who will be the MC this time.
@Michaelvaliant@writing.exchange@WingedLion agreed! Both Game of Thrones and Wheel of Time have prologues designed to accomplish the same things and both work.
I read Camel Club book 1 by Baldacci recently and while the book was good (after a very slow start) the prologue was long, confusing and didn’t tie in to the story until later on. So I think you have to be careful if the prologue doesn’t have some weight in chapter one (even as just as a shadow over the events)